valuable-hard or soft skills

It is a quesiton of having soft skills. ANY soft skills help. Too many hard-core geeks (and I use that term as a term of endearment) can not get along with management or peers because they do not know how to "go along to get along."
Don't capitualte to ridiculous concepts, but be able to adapt to things outside of your control. Complain once and let it go. Forgive and forget.

As a technical manager who is very personal and outgoing, I don't care how good your code is. If I can not manage you as an employee, I do not want you around. During a project you are great to have as a resource, but outside of that environment difficult people are just that. Remember managers manage people as as well as people's work. If you come to work every day only focusing on half of that in mind, you will not be around that company for long.

DKS